Open Letter to Dr. Deborah MacLatchy, PhD, President and Vice-Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, president@wlu.ca, and Dr. Vivek Goel, CM, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo, president@uwaterloo.ca [NOTE: I sent this as a letter to both, without the images.] RE: Removing mask mandates at your universities. My daughter
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: In Conversation with Richard Marsh
After writing about the Klondike Papers originally, my little blog got a ridiculous number of hits very briefly but just long enough for Richard Marsh to notice and fact-check my post. He’s the ex-member of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) that “fixer” David Wallace was tasked with hunting down,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: And on to LongCovid
Masks are all but gone in my neck of the woods. A couple stores have employees that wear them, but not many, and then very few customers do. The people I know who don’t wear masks seem to fall in two camps: The first are people with kids who are
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Expertise
We’ve grown to develop an anti-expertise view in society. I imagine it might have something to do with a do-it-yourself mentality born of individualism and capitalism. I can work harder to figure out how to do it myself and then I don’t need anyone else’s help. I get that. About eight
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Russia’s Hunger Plan
This Timothy Snyder (historian specializing in genocide) thread is unnerving: “Russia has a hunger plan. Vladimir Putin is preparing to starve much of the developing world as the next stage in his war in Europe. In normal times, Ukraine is a leading exporter of foodstuffs. A Russian naval blockade now prevents Ukraine
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Klondike Papers
I’m just getting my head around it all here. But I’ve watched lots of videos and read lots of threads, and here’s what seems to be happening in as brief a nutshell as possible. I don’t know what’s absolutely true here, but it’s a compelling story with lots of supporting
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Masks and Narcissism
I was reading a random woman’s social media feed as she was considering that an increase in narcissism might be to blame for masking issues, and I nodded along to each of her points. Then she happened across this study that shows that people who don’t mask are more prone
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Love and Sorrow
I’ve recently started reading Martha Crawford’s blog and following her on Twitter. She’s a therapist in remission from cancer. I want to keep this particularly beautiful and timely thread to revisit from time to time: “I try not to participate in war and game binary metaphors of victory and defeat,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Bit More on Burnout
I was listening to VoicEd.ca last week (Wednesdays at 8:45 am), and they recommended Lynn Thomas’s post on resilience and burnout summarized from a talk by Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe. I agree with much of what she writes, particularly about the number of teachers hitting a wall (70% of teachers are concerned
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Some Words on Hope
The Narwhal quoted police and prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba on her understanding of hope: “The idea of hope being a discipline is something I heard from a nun many years ago. The hope that she was talking about was this grounded hope that was practiced every day, that people actually practiced
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Just 1,460 More Days ‘Til We Vote Him Out!
They called the election before all the polling places were closed because Ford had that much of a lead. My first thought this morning: “Realizing what a bubble I’m in online and in real life. I don’t know a single person who would consider voting PC. I’m blown away that cuts
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ford’s Privatization Scheme
How privatization of social services and healthcare is moving forward in Ontario from an anonymous ODSP employment provider: (from here with links to articles here and here) Ford two years ago brought in American companies who have been figuring out what approach / messaging to take that would be ‘acceptable’ to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: So, Where are We Headed?
I knew what he was going to say as soon as we made eye contact. A bearded shit-eating grin in a pickup-truck stopped at a light while I cycled across the intersection to join a trail packed with university students. I just wanted to clear my head after events of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Optional Grade 13 – aka Breaking the 34-Credit Threshold
When Conservatives Mike Harris and Ernie Eves decided to get rid of grade 13 and the OAC year – Ontario Academic Credit – in 2003, I was opposed to the move even though Ontario was last in Canada to offer it. At the time, everyone had to finish grade 12,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pandemic Amnesia
Someone told me that we need to adapt to Covid faster, and get used to masks and checking air quality much faster for our own survival. They think our problem is our inability to adapt to this new environment. I said that I think we have adapted quickly, but we’ve done
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Are We Being Manipulated to Ignore Covid?
Recently @LauraMiers wrote: “When people finally realize they’re being manipulated–that repeated Covid infections cause permanent organ damage and autoimmunity, dramatically shorten life spans, exacerbate all re-existing issues, and lead to a markedly decreased quality of life–they’re going to be furious. The “Urgency of Normal’ people are running out of arguments so
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Harrowing Road for Candidates – and the Rest of Us
I’ve recently read two articles on the problem and solution to the current nastiness in elections after hearing first hand about serious issues candidates have had at the door. You never know who you’re going to get when you knock on someone’s door, and most people don’t want to buy
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Masks Work
I posted this on social media, and it garnered some notice: At almost half a million distinct views in four days, it’s doing considerably better than my entire blog! Of course many viewers were not also likers and I’ve had to set aside some blocking time each day to weed
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Student Led Differentiation
Occasionally we actually get some good ideas from PD in-servicing. I previously wrote in praise of Paul Gorski‘s anti-grit (possibly now anti-resilience) stance. Today we watched a video that, in a nutshell, asked us to better understand how stats work, which is a very necessary concept for everyone to grasp
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Not Dead Yet!
This pandemic feels like living in a horror movie that just keeps going on and on. We think the killer is dead, but then they come back for yet another attack. Is this one finally the end? Is this one?? When is it over?? Checking our watch is a bad sign
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